85G.001W64/52⅓: Telegram
The Minister in the Netherlands (Gordon) to the Secretary of State
[Received May 7—9:09 p.m.]
146. Please communicate the following immediately to the President. Department’s instruction 321 of December 21 [29] and its enclosure.50 [Page 187] The Queen desires to know whether in the event that the Princess and her children should, either within or outside of the Netherlands, be cut off from and unable to communicate with the Queen, a request from the Princess or Prince Bernhard in one of their own names for the despatch of a cruiser to take them and the children to the United States would have the same weight as a similar request on her own part.
- Not printed. The instruction enclosed a letter which was described as a personal message from President Roosevelt for delivery to Queen Wilhelmina. A draft of this letter, dated December 19, 1939, is in the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library at Hyde Park, N. Y. It invited the Queen to send her grandchildren to stay with President and Mrs. Roosevelt, and also extended the invitation to Princess Juliana if she should care to come. (856.001W64/50)↩